Alan L. W. D'Silva
Partner

Alan D’Silva is a partner in the Litigation & Dispute Resolution Group. He is considered a leading litigation lawyer in Canada with expertise in a number of areas of law, including defence of class actions, corporate/commercial disputes, securities litigation, shareholder/oppression cases, large insurance litigation, accountants’ and auditors’ negligence, professional negligence, sports law and directors’ and officers’ claims. Alan has served on the Management Committee in the Toronto office.

Alan has acted as counsel in more than 190 publicly reported cases and has extensive experience at all levels of court, and before administrative tribunals, including more than 80 appeals in Canadian appellate courts and 13 cases in the Supreme Court of Canada since 2001. He has also acted as a mediator, arbitrator and an expert witness in Canadian courts.

Alan is a recipient of the University of Ottawa Law School's 2015 Alumni Award and has been inducted to the Common Law Honour Society, which is described as the Law School's most prestigious alumni distinction.

Alan is a Fellow in The Trial Lawyer Honorary Society of the Litigation Counsel of America since 2018, a by invitation only membership.

Professional Activities

Alan has taught class actions, appeals and judicial reviews as an Adjunct Professor at University of Toronto Faculty of Law and at the University of Western Ontario Law School; class actions as a visiting Professor at the University of Ottawa Law School; and constitutional law as a guest lecturer at the University of Windsor Law School. He is a former instructor at Osgoode Hall Law School’s Intensive Trial Advocacy Course and taught civil litigation and legal writing for the Law Society’s Bar Admission Course. He has served as Chair of the Northwind Class Actions Invitational Forum at Langdon Hall, Cambridge, as a member of the board of directors for The Advocates’ Society and Chair of the Standing Committee and its Task Force on the Report on Retention of Women in the Profession. He was part of the Executive Committee OBA Insurance Section, former Counsel of Ontario Human Rights Commission, and was a member of the Equity Advisory Group for the Law Society of Upper Canada.

Background

Alan is a former and current board member or committee member of several charitable or non-profit organizations, universities and hospitals. He is the past President of a large Ratepayers' Association and is a recognized member of the University of Ottawa’s Tabaret Society and the R. Fraser Elliott Society for charitable contributions.

Bar Admission

Chambers Canada 2018 as a leading lawyer in Dispute Resolution: Class Action (Defence).

Chambers Global 2017 as a leading lawyer in the area of Dispute Resolution: Class Action (Defence) where he is described as a “strong litigator and very well respected”.

Benchmark Canada: The Definitive Guide to Canada’s Leading Litigation Firms and Attorneys 2018 in Class Action, Insurance Litigation and Securities Litigation, and recipient of an ‘honorable mention’ for Top Litigation Lawyer in Ontario in the 2015 edition.